KUALA LUMPUR – A total of 5,947 of travellers arriving from abroad have applied for quarantine at home through the Home Quarantine Application (HQA) portal since it was launched on September 20.
Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in the week since its launch, the HQA portal has received 4,883 completed applications and, of this number, 1,741 applications have been processed.
“Of the number, 1,612 individuals have received approval for home or residential quarantine,” he said in a statement today.
Dr Noor Hisham said of the total number of applications, 3,921 were Malaysians, 1,910 were foreign nationals while 116 were permanent residents.
The Health Ministry (MoH) launched the HQA portal as part of preparations to face an increasing number of travellers arriving from abroad.
The portal was created to ease the application process for home or residential quarantine for travellers arriving in Malaysia through various international entry points.
Through the HQA portal, individuals need only submit their applications within seven to 10 days before their arrival in Malaysia.
However, Dr Noor Hisham said the online system is still at the transition stage and is expected to be fully utilised from next month.
He said the MoH is targeting more applications to be settled within three days, with the process to be improved from time to time.
Meanwhile, he advised all applicants to fully comply with directives issued and the home quarantine standard operating procedures (SOPs).
“This is important in reducing the risk of Covid-19 infection to family members and the community, and avoiding the spread of new variants of the virus, especially variants of concern (VoC) or variants of interest (VoI) in the country,” he said.
More information is available at the HQA portal. – Bernama, September 28, 2021
